The Gold Goddess
*David Michelinie |penciller=Dan Reed |inker=Danny Bulanadi |letterer=Joe Rosen |colorist=Bob Sharen |publisher=Marvel Comics |released=1983 |canon=Licensing |timeline=1936 }} "The Gold Goddess" is a two-part story presented in issues 9 and 10 of Marvel's Further Adventures of Indiana Jones comic book series. Chapter one (subtitled "Xomec's Raiders") was published in September 1983 and chapter two ("Amazon Death-Ride!") followed in October. The story acts as a continuation of a number of elements from Raiders of the Lost Ark, in particular the film's opening sequence in South America. TSR, Inc. released an adaptation of the story, "The Golden Goddess" RPG Solo Adventure Pack, in 1985, which included a map, character figures and an aircraft. Plot summary Issue 9: "The Gold Goddess: Xomec's Raiders" Some weeks after Indiana Jones lost the Chachapoyan Fertility Idol to Belloq in Peru, the archaeologist has picked up the artifact's trail in Marrakesh. Assisted by his friend Sallah, Jones breaks into the storeroom of local antiquities dealer Saad Hassim. When he's lowered down into the building, however, he sees that Hassim has been stabbed to death and realizes that he's been beaten to the idol by a pair of masked thieves in the middle of their heist. Spooked, the thieves try to flee with the artifact but Jones quickly uncoils his bullwhip and brings down a large cat statue on top of them. He tosses the idol up to Sallah then has to rethink his own exit strategy as he discovers that the recovering thieves are armed. Jones kicks down the locked exit door and escapes into the street only to find that the thieves' backup car has arrived. Jones tries to lose the vehicle by slipping into an alley. Faced with a dead end, however, the archaeologist instead hooks his whip onto a nearby drainpipe to scale the wall. After a momentary scare when the drainpipe can't hold Jones's weight and begins to collapse, Sallah pulls Jones back up to the rooftops just as the car slams into the wall below. and Indiana Jones flee Marrakesh with the idol.]] Jones and Sallah flee across the rooftops pursued by the armed thieves and soon run out of buildings to leap between. With no time to climb down to their waiting truck, the pair resign themselves to dropping off the edge of the building and smash through the canopy where their fall is cushioned by a load of camel straw. The two thieves watch the truck escape into the Moroccan desert then unmask. The man, Xomec, bemoans that the Chachapoyan idol has gotten away from them but his female counterpart reassures him that the event may actually turn out fortuitous for the both of them. Having recognized the archaeologist from photographs, she explains that while Xomec will get the idol, she has the opportunity to get a victory of her own: the death of Indiana Jones. Three days later, at a busy National Museum fundraiser being held at the Diamond Eye nightclub in a New York City high-rise, Marion Ravenwood complains to Marcus Brody about being stood up by Jones again. The museum curator can only sympathize: Brody had expected that Jones would be back with the idol days prior and is now faced with a room full of reporters that he invited but has nothing to show them. The journalists all suddenly rush towards the elevator which Brody mistakenly assumes is an attempt to leave when a tuxedoed Jones steps out with the idol in hand. A relieved Brody gratefully receives the artifact from Jones then breaks away from the party to safely secure the idol which is to be showcased inside a replica of the Temple of the Chachapoyan Warriors. Inside the display room, however, Brody walks in on the body of its security guard lying on the ground and his attempt to go get help for the man is thwarted when a dart suddenly slams the door shut. In nothing more than a loincloth and wristguards, Xomec, flanked on each side by a blowgun-wielding Hovitos warrior, angrily introduces himself to Brody as a descendant of the Chachapoyans and demands the idol which is sacred to both his and the Hovitos people. Brody begrudgingly hands over the relic but they're interrupted by commotion outside as the impatient reporters are keen to see the idol. His attempt at a quiet infiltration frustrated, Xomec pulls out his pistol and fires blind at the display room door. Jones and Marion move to outflank the unseen assailants by approaching the display room window from the outside, 23-storeys above the Manhattan streets belows. Jones leaves Marion on the roof while he carefully edges around the building exterior but Xomec and the Hovitos notice him as they make their escape out of the window with the idol. Jones narrowly avoids a poison dart by ducking back around the corner. Though the move unbalances him, his fall is prevented by the timely arrival of Marion who catches him. Jones flaps his dinner jacket in front of his blind spot around the corner. With no bullets forthcoming, the archaeologist safely assumes that the three men have retreated by going around the far corner of the skyscraper ledge. Privately relieved that the raiders aren't smart enough to leave someone to guard their escape, Jones realizes his error when he approaches the far corner only to be met by one of the Hovitos stepping back into view. The archaeologist manages to duck a dart then makes up for the absence of his bullwhip by improvising one with his jacket, snapping it into the face of his antagonist. The Hovitos falls, instinctively grabbing at the jacket and pulls Jones over the edge with him. Jones loses his jacket and his glasses but not his life as he manages to keep a hold of the ledge while the Hovitos isn't so fortunate. The second Hovitos warrior arrives to take advantage of Jones' predicament and kicks at the archaeologist. Jones clings to the ledge with his fingertips only to have them crushed with excruciating pain under the stomps of the warrior. Issue 10: "The Gold Goddess: Amazon Death-Ride!" Indiana Jones is saved from his precarious situation by a well-timed bullet that sends the Hovitos warrior plummeting to his death. The archaeologist is surprised but nevertheless grateful that his rescuer is Marion Ravenwood, wielding the gun of the Diamond Eye's unconscious guard. She reminds him that Xomec is getting away and so Jones pursues the Chachapoyan descendant and the fertility idol around the exterior of the high-rise structure. As he catches up, Jones sees that Xomec is making his escape along a ladder which acts as a bridge between the nightclub and a neighboring skyscraper. As the only way to close the distance between the two men is to jump the gap, Jones risks his life on one big leap across the bridge. Although the archaeologist makes it most of the way, Xomec has already reached the other side and simply upends the ladder, dumping Jones over the edge. Marion watches horrified as Jones tumbles downward; however, her feelings turn to those of relief as Jones manages to catch onto a flagpole to stop his fall. He then strongly encourages Marion to grab a rope. Empty-handed, the pair return to the Diamond Eye where they find Marcus Brody on the telephone in the nightclub's office. He discreetly directs Jones to pick up the extension and, on the other end of the line, Xomec's partner from Marrakesh finishes laying out her terms: payment in exchange for the idol's return but only if Jones delivers it in person. Alone. She hangs up on Brody as he protests and informs the recently arrived Xomec that Indiana Jones will soon be hers. Days later, Jones is ferried down the Amazon by riverboat towards the pre-arranged meeting point with the mystery woman well aware that if the situation was simply about money a deal would have been made back in New York. The vessel docks in Manaus, Brazil and Jones heads off into the jungle with a machete. Hours of hacking away at the overgrowth and the archaeologist's trek concludes within sight of a disused 19th century opera house. Noticing movement in the canopy, Jones senses a trap just as a Hovitos warrior dives down from above. The machete takes care of the assailant but the ambush draws out more spear-wielding Hovitos. The archaeologist manages to fire off a few rounds from his gun before he's overwhelmed and eventually knocked out after a poison-tipped spearhead grazes him during the scuffle. Under Xomec's direction, the Hovitos drag Jones away. Jones recovers inside the opera house with his whip confiscated and comes face to with Xomec's counterpart who introduces herself as Ilsa Toht, sister of the Nazi agent Ernst Toht who died during Jones's hunt for the Ark of the Covenant. A servant of the Third Reich herself, Ilsa explains that she was assigned to capture the golden fertility idol and use it to encourage an uprising among the local indigenous tribes to disrupt US interests in the area should the country ever move to interfere with German expansion. That the assignment presents the opportunity for her to wreak vengeance upon the man she blames for her brother's death is merely a happy coincidence. Regardless, Ilsa leaves Jones's punishment to be meted out by Xomec. Xomec and some Hovitos lead Jones, with "ceremonial strips of rawhide" tied to his wrists, back into the rainforest where the archaeologist is to be staked to the ground and fed upon by hungry alligators. En route, Jones considers that his options are few then quickly sucker punches one Hovitos, steals his spear and breaks it across the face of another then makes a break for it. Xomec tackles Jones to the ground, confident that all Jones has earned for his efforts is a face-plant into some weeds. Jones, however, knows different. The archaeologist is staked to the ground along the banks of the Amazon. Xomec informs Jones at length about how he will repay Ilsa's partnership by traveling up the river with her to meet the gathered tribes. With the idol in his possession, they will rally around Xomec as their leader and provide whatever he demands. The arrival of the alligators actually comes as something as a relief to Jones as their presence sends Xomec and the Hovitos away to rendezvous with Ilsa's seaplane. Jones slips his wrist out of the restraints thanks to having moistened the rawhide strips when he fell into the weeds earlier. He has just enough time to untie his second wrist when the lead alligator is upon him and Jones is forced to wrestle with the creature, ankles still pinned in place while the other reptiles simply observe the strange sight of a man wearing down his foe by recreating a stunt he half-remembers from watching a Florida sideshow. He manages to clamp the alligator's jaws shut with the rawhide, frees himself then goes after the Ilsa and Xomec's aircraft. The biplane is just about to take off when Jones breaks out of the jungle, rushes the two Hovitos guards on the jetty and throws himself between the wings of the craft. In the air, Xomec and Ilsa notice the archaeologist trying to force the vehicle into an emergency landing by weakening the support struts and the Chachapoyan moves to stop him. Ilsa refuses to arm Xomec with her gun lest he damage the craft worse than Jones but hands over Jones's whip. Encouraged by the thought of ending the archaeologist's life with his own weapon, Xomec gravely underestimates Jones's mastery of it. He catches the end of the bullwhip around his forearm and plucks Xomec out of the cockpit to his death below. Ilsa tries to shake Jones loose to no avail, the archaeologist suspects that the Nazi is too much like her brother to allow her to simply get away. Ilsa points out that his efforts are all for naught: she'll simply have the natives finish him when they land. Jones responds by jamming the controls while the plane is over water and dives out wth the fertility idol just before the craft carries Ilsa into the water with a large crash. As he heads for dry land, Jones considers that he doesn't know whether or not Ilsa survived the ordeal but he figures that if she did, she'll let him know sooner or later. Appearances Characters *René Emile Belloq *Marcus Brody *Carver *Charon *Sallah Mohammed Faisel el-Kahir *Ernie *Fayah *Goldilocks *Saad Hassim *Indiana Jones *Marion Ravenwood *Romeo *Arnold Ernst Toht *Ilsa Toht *Xomec / "Tattoo" Artifacts *Ark of the Covenant *Chachapoyan Fertility Idol Locations *Brazil **Manaus *Heaven *Peru **Temple of the Chachapoyan Warriors *Morocco **Marrakesh ***Saad Hassim's Shop *United States of America **Connecticut ***National Museum **Florida **New York ***New York City ****''Diamond Eye'' Vehicles and vessels *''S.S. Williamson'' *Sedan Animals *Alligator *Camel *Cat *Monkey Miscellanea *"A British Tar" *Archaeologist *Dillinger *Hovitos *Lindy hop *Mercedes *Rope Behind the scenes The issue's part one title "Xomec's Raiders" is likely to be a reference to the franchise's first film Raiders of the Lost Ark, which spawned The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones comic book series and featured prominently both the Hovitos tribe and the Chachapoyan Fertility Idol during its opening sequence. In reference to The Gold Goddess, Indiana Jones: The Ultimate Guide states that Jones recovered the Chachapoyan Fertility Idol both "years later" after Belloq stole it from him in Raiders and in 1937. However, the original Marvel Comics story takes place during 1936, the same year as the events of Raiders. "The Gold Goddess" was adapted into an unofficial two-part audio adventure for the IndyCast in 2011. Cover gallery File:TheGoldGoddess9.jpg|Issue 9: "The Gold Goddess: Xomec's Raiders" File:TheGoldGoddess10.jpg|Issue 10: "The Gold Goddess: Amazon Death-Ride!" Gold Goddess, The